


Letting Your Actions Do The Talking

by Diamond_Raven



Category: Common Law (TV)
Genre: Episode Tag, Friends to Lovers, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-14
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-22 15:20:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30040701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Diamond_Raven/pseuds/Diamond_Raven
Summary: After arresting his foster brother for the baby face robberies, Travis reflects on his relationship with his foster brother, his foster mother and Wes. He always circles back to the same conclusion he first had when he was five years old: actions speak louder than words.
Relationships: Travis Marks/Wes Mitchell
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	Letting Your Actions Do The Talking

“I would have pulled that trigger.”

“I know. I was there to make sure you didn't have to.”

\- Travis and Wes, S01E05 ‘The T Word’

* * *

Actions speak louder than words. Not only is that true, but Travis has always taken this a step farther: he doesn’t trust words. Sticking to that principle has served him well over the years and it’s a big part of why he’s a good detective. People use words to lie and manipulate. Sometimes people use the wrong words without even realizing it and lie unintentionally. Or they lie to make themselves feel better.

He’d just turned sixteen when he’d moved in with Jay and his family. Jay’s mom had greeted him with a warm hug, a huge smile and a declaration that Travis should call her ‘mom’. She hadn’t been the first of his foster parents to say that and by that point in his life, Travis greeted the request with wary caution. That wary caution was a suit of armor he’d built around himself over the years. He’d been so confused and hurt the first time a social worker had shown up to take him away from the woman who had become ‘mom’ to him and had promised to love him and be his mom forever. He must have been about five at the time. The situation had sucked but it provided the building blocks of the armor that Travis has worn throughout his entire life.

But even if he knows that words are meaningless, it doesn’t mean words don’t have the power to hurt him.

When the clues had started piling up and Travis’ suspicions that Jay was one of the baby face robbers grew, he’d desperately hoped that Jay and his mom would cooperate. They could figure things out together, because that’s what a family does.

Except they didn’t cooperate. Not only that, but Travis remembers how much it had stung when Jay had reacted defensively in the face of Travis’ suspicions and reminded him that he was Travis’ brother so how dare Travis suspect him?! Later, Jay’s mom had reacted just as defensively when Travis had tried making her see that the evidence was piling up and Jay was going to get caught eventually.

When she’d snapped that Travis was “talking about her son”, it felt like she’d stabbed Travis. Just a few hours ago, she’d been ‘mom’ to him and called Travis her son. She’d acted like Travis and Jay had equal places in her heart. The only reason she had finally shared what she’d known about the situation was because he’d reminded her that Jay was playing a dangerous game and could end up getting hurt. That’s why she’d decided to cooperate. Not because she felt torn over Travis feeling conflicted about the situation. Not because Travis was really part of their family.

Maybe he’s overreacting, but having both Jay and his foster mom using those familial terms as weapons really hurt. Because those words mean a lot to Travis and he’s always hated how easily people can throw those words around when they feel like it and later pretend they never said them or prove that they never meant them.

But that’s the problem with words: they’re easy to say. It takes five seconds to smile at a scared little boy and tell him that he’s going to live with them forever. It takes little effort for one of his other foster moms, like Margie, to playfully admonish Travis when he greets her by her name rather than ‘mom’.

Actions are harder to fake. They take more effort and they can’t just be flung out into the wind.

It didn’t matter how many times Margie had sworn that Travis had a permanent spot in her heart and would be her son forever. A few months after Travis had been put into a new foster home, Margie had changed phone providers and got a new phone number and Travis hadn’t been on the list of people she’d bothered informing. Not because she was cruel or hated him, but because promises of forever are easy to make but way harder to keep. If Travis hadn’t known that she’d worked at the TSA, he would have lost contact with her forever and he doesn’t think Margie would have really cared.

It didn’t matter how many times Jay’s mom promised Travis that she loved him just as much as she did Jay and she would be his mom forever. What mattered was that after Travis got caught street racing, it had been a social worker who had picked Travis up from the station and had taken him to a new foster family because he was suddenly ‘too difficult’ for them to deal with and his foster mom had worried about Travis being a bad influence on Jay. Once Travis had turned 18 and was out of the system, he’d randomly bumped into his foster mom at a grocery store and she’d greeted him with a hug and joyful enthusiasm at being “reunited with her son”.

* * *

Words are cheap and Travis doesn’t pay much attention to them. It’s something he wishes Dr. Ryan would understand. It’s not that he and Wes hate therapy but it’s just not their style. Because the thing is, despite Wes being so different from Travis in almost every way, there’s one area where they’ve always lined up perfectly: Wes shares Travis’ deep distrust of words.

A part of that probably has to do with Wes’ past as a lawyer where he’d used words to twist facts into whatever shape he needed to make his client’s charges disappear. It’s a skill he’s transferred over to therapy where he loves twisting Dr Ryan’s questions around and figuring out how to answer them without actually telling her anything important, while never crossing the line into being uncooperative enough that she’ll report them to Captain Sutton. When it comes to people he doesn’t like, Wes likes playing games with words. Snarky comments, snide judgments, passive aggressive observations—they’re all part of the game.

Another reason Wes shares Travis’ dislike for words probably has to do with Wes’ parents, who send him monthly emails that describe their daily lives in painstaking detail while never asking Wes about his life. The same parents who haven’t invited Wes to visit in years or always offer bullshit reasons why they can’t make it to Wes’ house for his birthday/Christmas/whatever.

If there’s somebody who understands that words are meaningless and it’s actions that truly matter, it’s definitely Wes.

After Travis had confessed his suspicions about Jay, Wes had a choice to make. He could have gone straight to Captain Sutton and demanded that Travis be taken off the case due to the conflict of interest, but he didn’t. He didn’t even tell Special Agent D’Amico about Travis’ suspicions, despite knowing he’d be putting his career on the line by keeping that information from the FBI. Travis hadn’t asked him to do that, Wes had just done it.

After Travis had chased Jay through that mansion’s yard and the two of them had ended up with guns pointed at each other with Travis facing the real possibility of either getting shot or having to shoot his foster brother, Wes had taken the shot for him. Not only that, but Wes had deliberately shot Jay in the shoulder, giving him a non-fatal wound that would allow Travis to disarm and arrest him.

The thing is, Wes didn’t have to do any of that. Travis hadn’t even known that Wes was standing way over by the mansion with Jay lined up in his rifle’s scope. He could have pretended to be further away and stayed out of the entire situation until Travis had been forced to make a choice. Maybe Travis could have gotten off the same non-fatal shot that Wes had or maybe he could have reasoned with Jay. But Travis didn’t have to do any of that because Wes had stepped in—without Travis asking him to—and had finished the situation in a way that left Travis as whole as possible.

It’s like that trust exercise that Travis remembers having to do in school. He’d stand with his back to somebody behind him, listening to the person reassuring him that he’ll catch Travis and it’ll all be okay, he can trust him. But even when Travis had let himself fall back—because the teacher would yell at him if he didn’t—his heart would be in this throat the entire time because he didn’t trust the person behind him. Not until they actually caught him and proved that their words hadn’t been empty promises.

With this whole case, both Jay and Jay’s mom had been the ones standing behind him, pleading with Travis to trust them, reminding him that they were his ‘brother’ and ‘mom’. But right when it counted, right when Travis had started to fall, they’d decided they had other priorities and turned away.

And Wes...Wes, who hadn’t even been involved, who was standing somewhere else and doing his own thing, he’d come rushing over and caught Travis. He hadn’t done it to fulfill any promises he’d made. He hadn’t done it to make himself feel better or to manipulate Travis. He’d just done it because he wanted to save Travis when he was falling. Simple as that.

* * *

As cops, trusting his partner is an essential part of the job. Travis couldn’t go into dangerous situations if he didn’t know Wes was watching his back. It’s a tactical thing. He doesn’t have eyes on the back of his head and sometimes they’re dealing with multiple bad guys so Travis needs another body with its own eyes and its own gun who will help Travis complete the job and keep him safe.

But through this whole case, Wes had stepped in and protected him even when Travis’ life wasn’t on the line. At the very least, Wes could have told Captain Sutton that Travis was being unprofessional when he’d blown off work the morning when he’d been tailing Jay. Travis would have gotten a stern talking-to but that would have been it. But Wes didn’t tell on him because he’d known that Travis was dealing with something difficult, even before Travis had actually told Wes what was going on.

The whole thing leaves Travis reeling because it’s making him re-evaluate so many of the relationships in his life, especially his relationship with Wes. He spends ages going back over important moments in their relationship and realizing that this is far from the first time Wes had used actions to demonstrate how important Travis is to him.

When Travis had been drowning in grief over Paekman’s death and had been on the verge of finding Crowl and taking him down, no matter where he was or how many witnesses would see it, Wes had stepped in. He’d tried using words to calm Travis down but of course, Travis had ignored them because words are meaningless. Crowl had used words to lie to Paekman and cover up his dirty work and when Paekman had seen through those lies, Crowl had killed him. All those words about Paekman being an important part of the SIS team and how they’re all brothers—Crowl hadn’t meant any of them. As soon as Paekman had gone to Wes and Travis for help and made it clear that he didn’t want to be part of the SIS’ dirty dealings, Crowl had proven how little those words had meant.

So Wes had stopped using words and had pulled his gun on him. It hadn’t even occurred to Travis that he should fear for his life because fearing for his life when Wes is around is ridiculous, even if Wes was the one holding the gun. And sure, the situation looked pretty bad from the outside. But Wes had pulled his gun because he’d known that the sound of the safety being clicked off behind Travis would make him freeze and that tiny interruption in his thoughts would be enough to get him to re-evaluate what the hell he was doing, which it did.

Wes could have tackled Travis to the floor, which would have resulted in a physical fight that would have pushed Travis’ adrenaline even higher and made him angrier. Wes could have kept trying to reason with him, which would have been pointless. Wes had done the only thing he could think of to stop Travis from making a decision that would have ruined Travis’ life and would have pissed Paekman off.

Wes had been suspended for two weeks and that blemish is still on his permanent record and always will be. It’s the only bad mark on his record and Wes had deliberately put it on there because he’d decided it was necessary to protect Travis. As far as Travis knows, Wes has never asked Captain Sutton if there’s a way the suspension could eventually be removed and until it is, Wes is ineligible for a promotion and won’t even be considered for transfers to highly sought after positions.

Wes’ lack of action regarding his disciplinary record is just as important and speaks just as loudly as when Wes had pulled his gun on Travis. Or when he’d agreed to go to therapy in exchange for staying partnered with Travis. Or when he’d kept the FBI and Captain Sutton out of the loop when Travis’ involvement in Jay’s case was an obvious problem. Or when he’d taken a shot that Travis should have been forced to take but would have left him with permanent scars on his heart.

And what’s even more incredible is that Wes going out of his way to do things that keep Travis safe and happy isn’t only restricted to really serious situations.

When Travis hadn’t managed to hide his jealousy and annoyance at that stupid too-tall jerk, Mr ‘Ice-Man’ who Phil and everybody else was fanning over and calling Travis 2.0, Wes had taken it upon himself to dig up dirt on Watkins and discovered that the amazing Mr Ice-Man had lied about being a big football star at USC.

Travis hadn’t asked Wes to look into Watkins’ history. Wes’ explanation that Travis can use the information in future if Phil decides to be a petty jerk again doesn’t really hold any water because Travis and Phil had parted on good terms. No, Wes had obviously gone looking for dirt on Watkins because he’d recognized that Travis was being an insecure, whiny baby and Watkins being seen as a better version of Travis bothered him. Wes could have ignored the entire situation or demanded that Travis leave his feelings about Watkins out of the office. But he didn’t. Instead, he spent time doing research on a guy he couldn’t care less about just so he could tell Travis some bad things about the guy and make Travis feel better.

* * *

The best part is that this whole ‘using-actions-to-make-somebody-happy’ isn’t just something Wes does. Travis does it all the time because that’s the best way to show how important Wes is to him.

Like when Travis brought Wes half of the homemade tamales Margie had given him when he’d gone to see her about the crooked accountant’s flight details. At the time, Wes had still been living in the hotel and Travis knew how badly he missed home cooked meals that resembled the type of food he would cook if he still had access to a kitchen.

Like during therapy sessions where Dr Ryan starts going in on Wes hard and brings up something that makes Wes go pale and quiet and Travis starts loudly talking about whatever comes into his head, filling up the minutes left in the session and refusing to shut up when Dr Ryan gets annoyed with him.

* * *

Following Jay’s arrest, Wes spends the rest of the week doing all sorts of little things to make Travis feel better, all without using any words or forcing Travis to use any. He shows up every morning with two cups of coffee and puts one on Travis’ desk. At lunch time, he picks food trucks that are Travis’ favorite, even if it means he has to drive a little farther to get there. Without asking Travis, Wes takes everything off Travis’ desk that has to do with the baby face robberies and he does all those reports himself. All Travis has to do is sign his name on the bottom.

* * *

The whole situation with Jay hurts and looking back on it, Travis thinks that’s why he spends ages mulling over the whole thing and by extension, mulling over his relationship with Wes and he’s starting to realize that his relationship with Wes is very different from anything he’s experienced before. Travis definitely never treated any members of his narcotics team like he does Wes. Even when he was partnered with Phil and spending hours alone with the guy, it wasn’t the same.

This goes way beyond the normal bond between cop partners. This is even beyond what friends do for each other. At least, it is where Travis is concerned. He’s a people pleaser and he loves doing things that make other people feel good but this is different. Keeping Wes happy is a normal part of Travis’ day. It’s not something he slots in to spare moments but it’s a routine, almost subconscious thing, like breathing or eating. Never mind when Wes is actually unhappy about something. That kicks Travis into overdrive without him having to think about it. That’s never happened to him before so it makes him think.

What’s really odd is that Wes clearly feels the same way. Wes doesn’t obsessively monitor other people’s moods, he doesn’t make excuses for other people when they mess up and he certainly never pushes aside his personal preferences to accommodate somebody else’s.

Yet...he does it with Travis.

Travis is a detective and collecting, analyzing and fitting clues together is what he does. And after a week of putting all these little clues together, he puts together a shocking theory. It looks like he and Wes have been loudly yelling something at each other without ever using words. The clues fit together so perfectly and form such a clear picture that Travis thinks he should be kicking himself for not realizing what that picture was.

But there’s still a chance—a tiny chance but it’s still there—that he’s wrong. That he’d misinterpreted the clues. He doesn’t think he did because he’s really good at analyzing actions and so is Wes, but it would be dangerous to jump to conclusions.

Dr Ryan would tell him to talk to Wes about it. They should sit down and have a mature conversation about it. But what she’s failed to understand about them is that having a conversation like that wouldn’t work. They’d both get flustered; their nerves making Wes default to snarky passive aggressiveness and Travis to funny one liners and they’d end up bickering over stupid things. Or they’d be so nervous that one of them will misinterpret what the other is saying, get defensive or upset and storm off. Or neither of them would know what to say and the conversation would fizzle out into awkwardness with both of them silently vowing never to bring it up again.

No, words won’t do. That’s not how they communicate and if there’s ever a time to use their preferred method of communication, it’s now. This situation is way too important to risk messing it up.

Travis needs to let his actions do the talking for him. The actions have to be chosen very carefully so they’ll make Travis’ feelings crystal clear and allow Wes to communicate his own feelings without making things awkward. All Travis has to figure out is what actions to use and what setting to apply them in.

* * *

By Friday, Travis has finished making his plan and he’s ready to put it into action. Literally.

When they’re clearing their desks for the weekend, he leans back in his chair. “You wanna come over tomorrow?”

Wes’ eyes light up a bit and there’s a tiny smile tugging on the corners of his lips, but his voice is very casual when he responds. “Sure. I’ll bring dinner.”

Travis struggles to contain his own smile because everything about the way Wes just responded is another big clue that fits perfectly into that beautiful picture Travis has framed and hung up in his head. The chance of him being wrong decreases by another half a percent. “Okay. Come over whenever.”

* * *

On Saturday, Wes comes sweeping into Travis’ apartment, having let himself in with the spare set of keys Travis had given him ages ago.

Wes is the first person Travis has ever given his spare keys to and Wes had gone quiet and blinked rapidly when Travis had tossed them in his lap. The keys had immediately been added to Wes’ key ring and Travis loves glancing over when Wes is driving and seeing his apartment keys dangling right next to Wes’ house keys. Neither of them had ever talked about it and that’s one of the many reasons Travis had given Wes his keys in the first place.

Sometimes Travis thinks he’s an idiot because why did it take him so long to put everything together?! But that tiny chance that he’s wrong is still there so he takes a deep breath and sternly tells his heart to quit trying to jump out of his throat.

Wes is taking off his shoes and holding an enormous bucket of what Travis can smell is fried chicken. “I brought chicken,” he says, like he’s assuming Travis’ nose isn’t working. “Do you wanna watch a movie?”

They do rock-paper-scissors to decide who gets to pick the first movie and Travis wins but he deliberately picks a movie that both he and Wes will like. Right on cue, that tiny, soft smile appears on Wes’ face as he hurries over to dig through Travis’ collection of DVDs.

Wes gets them plates and napkins from the kitchen and joins Travis on the couch with the bucket of chicken sitting on Travis’ lap. One plate goes on Wes’ lap and Travis keeps the other two plates piled together on the coffee table to collect their bones, purposefully refusing to follow Wes’ unspoken demand that Travis use a plate for eating.

Predictably, Wes rolls his eyes. “You realize you don’t live in a cave, right? Why do you even have plates if you refuse to use them?”

Travis is already chewing on chicken. “They’re decoration.”

Wes presses his lips together, clearly trying to hold in a laugh and he smacks Travis’ hands out of the bucket so he can frown into it and pick the perfect piece of chicken for himself.

Keeping the bucket of chicken on his lap rather than putting it on the coffee table was a strategic choice Travis had made and it’s part of his grand plan. It forces Wes to get close to Travis every time he wants another piece. At the same time, if the close contact was bothering Wes, he’d grab the bucket and put on the table while making snarky comments about Travis not knowing what a table is for. But he doesn’t move the bucket and as the movie plays, Wes slides closer and closer to Travis.

Eventually, Travis’ arm gets squished between them and he throws it over the back of the couch as he keeps a close eye on Wes’ reaction. Just like before, Wes has a choice. After taking out another piece of chicken, he could shift sideways a bit so he’s maintaining some distance between them. But after carefully examining his options in the bucket and selecting his next piece, he stays pressed up against Travis.

While the movie plays and Travis keeps his eyes glued on the TV, he’s very aware of Wes’ warmth pressed up against him. Wes is chewing on his chicken and slowly relaxing more into Travis, his head eventually leaning against Travis’ shoulder. Travis’ heart is racing again and it’s really hard to keep the smile off his face because everything keeps lining up exactly the way he’d hoped they would.

He waits a while longer, eating chicken with one hand while Wes stays slumped against his side, relaxed and content. Then a happy accident happens when Travis takes the next bite of the wing he’s eating and a chunk of breading falls into his lap.

Travis makes an unhappy noise, staring down at the delicious piece of crunchy breading. His hand is full of chicken and his other hand is on the back of the couch, but he could grab the breading with his chicken hand.

But right before he makes a move to do it, Wes glances over and casually picks it up and holds it up to Travis’ mouth. “I can hear our arteries clogging, you know.”

The words are casual but Wes’ hand is a bit tense as he holds the little chunk of breading a few inches from Travis’ lips and his eyes are glued to his hand instead of the TV.

Travis leans forward and gently snatches the piece of breading from Wes’ fingers. “It’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make,” Travis mumbles as he chews.

It’s really weird to know that neither of them are paying attention to the words coming out of their mouths. They’re just words being flung around.

Wes’ head is still leaning against Travis’ shoulder and he’s lowered his hand to rest on the rim of the chicken bucket but his eyes are staring at Travis’ lips.

Things are looking really good, but Travis needs to do a few more tests. Because if he’s wrong about all this and Wes ends up freaking out, it’ll fuck everything up. So he glances down at Wes while holding up his chicken. “Wanna grab me a napkin? I’m covered in crumbs.”

Wes leans over him and pulls out a napkin from the stack sitting next to Travis. Again, Travis is giving Wes a choice. He could slide away and let Travis pull his couch arm back before handing him the napkin. Travis would take the napkin, wipe his mouth and that would be that.

There’s some tension in Wes’ body and he’s crumpled up the napkin in a tight fist as he sits there, staring at it while Travis keeps his eyes on the TV and stays relaxed and still.

Then Wes slowly lifts the napkin and gently wipes Travis’ mouth for him. “Your laziness is reaching new heights,” he says, his voices tight with nerves.

Feeling the napkin sliding against his skin makes Travis grin. Once Wes drops the napkin, Travis leans over to put the remainder of his chicken wing on the bone plate before he’s snagging a napkin from the pile next to him, his couch arm staying behind Wes.

As soon as Travis is leaning back against the couch, Wes makes himself comfortable against his side again and Travis holds up the napkin as he looks down at him. “Time for me to return the favor.”

Wes stares at the napkin in Travis’ hand and Travis stays perfectly still, waiting to see if Wes will take the napkin from him and shift away.

But he doesn’t. Slowly, Travis moves his hand closer and Wes tilts his chin up a bit, waiting. He’s tense against Travis’ side and his hands are fidgeting a bit, but he keeps them in his lap.

Travis gently wipes the non-existent crumbs from Wes’ mouth. Wanting to make eye contact with him, he stops wiping for a second and puts a finger under Wes’ chin, applying just a bit of pressure. Wes follows the pressure and lifts his chin a bit and his eyes jerk up to stare at Travis.

The napkin is crumpled in Travis’ hand and he stares at Wes, their faces only inches apart. Wes blinks a few times, looking pale and nervous and Travis hates that so he leans over and kisses Wes’ forehead. “There. All clean. Can’t say the same for our arteries, but we’ll make it up to them.”

Then he leans back against the couch and looks at the TV. Wes is frozen against his side and he’s breathing too fast but he doesn’t pull away. Slowly, Travis lets his couch arm slide down until it’s casually slung across Wes’ shoulders. Wes tenses even more from the contact and Travis freezes.

They stay like that for a while and Wes’ tension doesn’t seem to be fading. He’s not pulling away, but Travis thinks maybe he’s miscalculated everything and Wes is so uncomfortable that he thinks shifting away will make things worse?

Since Travis is the one not frozen like a statue, it’s up to him to salvage the situation. Lifting his arm from Wes’ shoulders, he stretches. “I gotta pee.”

Standing up and losing the warmth of Wes being pressed up against him feels like a gut punch, but it’s necessary. He makes his way to the bathroom and takes longer than necessary to give Wes plenty of time to think. If he comes out of the bathroom and Wes is way on the other side of the couch, Travis will do his best to steer things back to their old path and forget that tonight ever happened.

But when he comes back out, Wes is exactly where he’d left him. Thinking that maybe it’s nerves that have kept him glued to the spot, Travis sits on the end of the couch with about a foot of space between them as he digs out the remaining napkins from underneath him and throws them on the table. But he does put his arm up on the back of the couch, leaving his side open. Just in case.

Wes stays a frozen log of tension in the middle of the couch. Then he’s leaning over and grabbing a clean napkin before he’s sliding towards Travis. “You still have some crumbs on your face,” Wes says, not making eye contact.

Travis keeps his empty-and-napkin-holding-capable—hands still as he looks at Wes. “I’m still prettier than you.”

That makes Wes laugh. It’s a nervous, strained laugh but it’s a laugh. Wes is tightly clutching the napkin and he’s holding it out, like he’s not sure if he wants to hand it to Travis or use it himself.

Travis is about to unfreeze one of his hands to take the napkin from him when Wes draws in a shaky breath and reaches for Travis’ chin with one hand and gently wipes the non-existent crumbs off his face. When he’s done, Wes lowers the napkin and leans closer, kissing Travis on the forehead. Then he’s throwing the napkin on the table and cuddling up against Travis’ side.

It all happened so fast that it takes Travis a second to process it and when he does, his heart does a happy dance and grin spreads over his face.

Wes is trembling slightly because he’s so tense but Travis carefully brings his couch arm down so it’s slung across Wes’ shoulders again. He curls his hand around Wes’ arm and rubs gently. He can’t keep the grin off his face, but he keeps his breathing even and his body relaxed, letting Wes know that everything’s okay. In fact, everything’s way more than okay.

Slowly, Wes relaxes against him, his head on Travis’ shoulder. They stay like that for a while, Travis rubbing Wes’ shoulder and letting him feel with every passing second that Travis wants this.

Finally, Wes shifts a bit, lifting his head to stare up at Travis. Looking down at him, Travis smiles softly. Everything feels so good, so right. They stare at each other and Wes stays relaxed as he slowly mirrors Travis’ smile.

Moving slowly, Travis leans towards him, making his intentions clear but giving Wes plenty of time to pull away. Wes doesn’t just stay there but he tilts his chin towards Travis, the movement big enough to show Travis that it was intentional.

They meet in the middle and Travis closes his eyes as he presses his lips against Wes’. Travis tilts his head just a bit to slot their lips together and Wes makes a soft sound, his hands coming up to curl around the back of Travis’ neck as they kiss.

It’s soft and slow and they keep pulling apart and smiling at each other before coming back together to kiss some more. When Wes presses himself harder against him, Travis slides his hands over Wes’ hips without breaking their kiss and pulls Wes onto his lap. Wes slides right up against him and his eyes are shining as he grins at Travis. Feeling the same grin on his own face, Travis wraps his arms around Wes’ back and catches his lips for more kissing.

They haven’t said a word since Wes had wiped Travis’ face and that makes things even more perfect. They’ve never needed words to understand each other and Travis knows deep in his heart that things will always stay like that. They’ll use words for meaningless bickering, snarky comments and casual chit chat. But when it really counts, when it’s important that they’re on the same page, they’ll always let their actions do the talking.


End file.
